Psychiatrist indicted in bludgeoning of baby daddy with a sledgehammer — (The New York Post)

The New York Post

By Larry Celona

October 19, 2017 | 9:09pm

A Manhattan psychiatrist has been indicted in the 2012 attempted sledgehammer murder of her baby daddy, The Post has learned.

The indictment alleges that Dr. Pamela Buchbinder enlisted her bi-polar young cousin to bludgeon and stab Dr. Michael Weiss in the victim’s West 57th Street home office, according to sources.

The two parents had been arguing over visitation for their then-6-year-old son, and three days before Weiss’s murder, Buchbinder had successfully demanded that he name her as beneficiary on his $1.5 million life insurance policy.

Weiss, meanwhile, survived the brutal attack, and has won full custody of the boy.

Buchbinder is expected to be arraigned Friday in Manhattan Supreme Court on charges of attempted murder, burglary and assault.

It took until last year for Buchbinder’s cousin, Jacob Nolan, 25, of Ronkonkoma, LI, to be convicted and sentenced in the brutal bludgeoning.

Weiss was Nolan’s biggest advocate as the young man was sentenced in July, 2016 to 9 ½ years prison for attempted murder, assault and burglary.

“I have no personal desire to punish Jake,” Weiss said at sentenicng of the man who nearly beat him to death.

“I understand that a long prison sentence will not undo what has happened or restore the sense of security that has been forever taken from me.”

Besides, Weiss alleged to a Manhattan judge — Buchbinder was the real culprit, manipulating the mentally vulnerable young man into committing the gruesome crime.

In 2015, as the two parents continued to spar over visitation, Weiss’s lawyer told a Manhattan Family Court judge that Buchbinder drew the map that Nolan used to find Weiss’s address and office.

At the same Family Court proceeding, Weiss’s side showed the judge photos of Buchbinder and Nolan buying a sledgehammer together at Chelsea Home Depot the night before the attack.

Jake’s target that day, Dr. Michael Weiss, was Buchbinder’s ex-boyfriend and another psychiatrist.

“Do you believe he was brainwashed?” Van Sant asked Debbie Nolan of her son.

“Yes,” she replied.

Debbie and Jim Nolan, Jake’s parents, are devastated.

“He is basically a really good kid who doesn’t have a mean bone in his body,” Debbie Nolan.

When you meet Jake, he seems rational.

“I’ve been on meds now for over a year-and-a-half that have finally worked for me,” he told Van Sant.

But he says that wasn’t always the case. Jake’s parents insist that to understand how and why their then-20-year-old son could have been conditioned to kill, you have to go back to his childhood.

“Jake was our third and our youngest child … He was a absolute delight,” Jim Nolan said. “He was gifted, he was smart … he liked to invent things.”

But Jake also had problems. By the age of 5, he was diagnosed with ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

“There was something with him that just … wasn’t the same as everybody else. And we started to notice significant changes in his personality and his demeanor around the ages of 14, 15,” Jim Nolan explained.

“What did you see?” Van Sant asked.

“He went through these large mood swings,” said Jim Nolan.

Still, Jake had moments of brilliance while in high school in Miami. He made news after he won a prestigious contest co-inventing a study tool app for iPhones called “Flash-Me.”

“And then a month later, I couldn’t get outta bed. My parents bribed me with everything to get out of bed,” he explained. “‘Please get out of bed; please get out of bed, Jake.’ … ‘You gotta go to school; please go to school today. Don’t miss another day of school.'”

Jake was then diagnosed with depression and anxiety. These episodes worsened to the point where, at the age of 17, Jake threatened to kill himself.

“He got a butcher knife from downstairs and he took it upstairs to his room, and he said he was gonna kill himself. We were terrified,” said Jim Nolan.